In a competitive labor atmosphere, green industry employers can attract and retain talent by showcasing their career opportunities, supportive cultures and positive impact on customers, communities and the environment.
“Some days are gorgeous, spent outside,” says Kate Kjeell, president and founder of TalentWell. “Other days can be colder, dirtier or more tiring. You have to be realistic about the fact that people have options and ask how you can provide an environment that offsets some of these perceptions.”
Employment consultants agree that irrigation and lighting industry businesses can create talent pipelines to find people who are ready to grow along with the business.
More than money
At the hourly level, wages matter, especially when job seekers can find higher pay with a fast-food chain or big-box store, consultants say.
“There’s a lot to be said about how to position yourself to be an employer of choice when there’s competition at the hourly end,” says Kjeell.
An appealing online presence, viable career pathways and meaningful benefits demonstrate that employers truly value their employees, she says.
Purpose and impact attract people eager to make a difference, work outside and pursue their passion for water conservation, says Conserva Irrigation Brand President Heather Todd. From their first classes, hires learn how to demonstrate Conserva’s core values of professionalism, innovation and responsibility.
“How powerful to say that I started as a helper or I started out as a customer service representative, and now I’m running my own team, leading another branch or, in some cases, owning my own business.”
— Heather Todd, brand president, Conserva Irrigation
“Giving technicians a guide or ‘instruction manual’ on how to run a service call and interact with customers is as key as irrigation training,” she says.
To offset the job’s seasonality, employers can build a diverse portfolio of services or establish expectations of temporary layoffs that allow workers to find off-season jobs in other settings, such as warehouses, suggests Ken Keller, CEO of Strategic Advisory Boards.
“You have to be doing something right if your people are going to be working out in the rain,” he says.
Some of Keller’s clients hire from temp agencies, a practice that’s useful for testing qualifications and keeping the workers who fit.
Conserva dispels with off-season mindsets by using the shoulder seasons to pursue growth, Todd says. Efforts include talent recruiting, training, customer package renewals, inventory management, partnering with adjacent businesses in holiday lighting or snow plowing, producing final “as-built” installation plans, and even encouraging holiday volunteerism.
Attract talent — and keep it
Standard boring job postings — a pet peeve of Kjeell’s — can be refreshed with dynamic messaging, storytelling and a unique organizational voice, she says. Asking top employees what they love about their jobs and what makes the company unique can provide material for writing attention-grabbing job listings.
Those top employees can also be brand ambassadors in the hiring process, creating role models for recruits to emulate.
From there, talent consultants agree: Retention starts with hiring. As a Harvard Business Review study states, “80% of turnover is due to bad hiring decisions.” And a bad entry- or mid-level hire costs from $7,000 to $10,000 in wasted effort, according to CareerBuilder.
“This is money right off their bottom line,” says Tom Borg, founder and president of Tom Borg Consulting. He recommends job profiling — creating checklists of the ideal candidates’ qualifications, from reliable transportation to communications that enlighten instead of diminish.
Those qualities can be written into an assessment — available from multiple vendors — and given to candidates to measure their motivators, stress tolerance and “emotional quotient.”
Some supervisors perform the job itself well but stumble at managing people, and as research shows, resigning workers “don’t leave the company,” says Keller. “They leave their supervisor.”
Preventing negative consequences requires moving misplaced supervisors to different positions, dismissing them or hiring a coach to build their people skills, says Borg.
At Conserva, franchise owners follow the Entrepreneurial Operating System model and strive for “the right person in the right seat,” says Todd. They retain talent by helping employees determine where they want to take their careers.
“You don’t want to lose that team member who understands your culture and understands what you’re about,” she says.
A rewarding culture
A workplace culture that makes people want to stay is based on values that drive action and aren’t “just some words on a wall,” says Kjeell. “What do we want to stand for as an organization, and how do we live that out?”
Green industry companies can infuse their cultures with enticements that young workers value. Flex hours, such as workweeks of four 10-hour days, could free employees to take second jobs or spend more time with family and friends, says Keller.
Borg recommends filling gaps by moving part-time workers — maybe retirees looking for flexibility and extra cash — around sites and crews. Kjeell also suggests floaters to fill in for parents attending their kids’ soccer games and recommends developing strong health care benefit programs.
Flexibility is a challenge in the green industry, but accommodation creates people who are “happier, more engaged and will stick with you,” says Kjeell.
Technology builds job satisfaction for a distributed workforce, Kjeell adds. Field team members want to pull out their phones and easily enter time sheets or use self-service apps to engage with human resources (HR) or others at the office. Organizations that don’t embrace technology will be less attractive, especially for digital natives. “If I’m out in the field all day and HR’s not there when I can call, that’s a dissatisfier,” she says.
Customer reviews and job performance dashboards drive engagement with real-time feedback and insights, says Todd. They pair with the job satisfaction that comes from offering customers the service that saves water, money and time.
“It’s all about serving customers and helping them optimize their systems for years and years to come,” she says. “You can make a nice living for you and your family if you do the right thing and take care of customers.”
Career growth
Career ladders and growth can be powerful recruiting and retention tools. Smaller businesses can “paint the picture of career paths early on,” with organizational charts showing technicians a rising level of responsibilities corresponding with company growth, says Todd.
“How powerful to say that I started as a helper or I started out as a customer service representative, and now I’m running my own team, leading another branch or, in some cases, owning my own business,” she adds.
Green industry companies of any size can define what growth looks like and what it means for employees, says Borg. “People typically want to know that there’s a path within the organization that they can use to develop and grow,” he says.
Teaching new skills and awarding certificates for mastery create a structure for learning as employees pursue opportunities. Begin by identifying employees who have skills and an interest in moving up, says Keller. As they learn more, they can earn higher pay and receive better opportunities.
Kjeell suggests creative ways to incentivize learning. Pair senior and junior employees for mentoring and knowledge exchange. Curate an online curriculum and pay stipends for attending classes. Offer tuition reimbursement for studies in related fields. Give gift cards to employees caught doing good deeds. Ask superstar service providers to do lunch-and-learns or short huddles.
“You hire people and assess their work ethic, experience and whether they are engaged,” said Kjeell. “From there, you can target them to learn more skills and move up the ranks and make more money.”
Todd says Irrigation Association certifications “serve as milestones” that incentivize team members to pursue defined career paths.
Spreading the word
Underaccessed talent pools include veterans, parents returning to the workforce and later-career people. Even those lacking the prerequisite years of experience can show potential for learning and taking initiative, Kjeell said.
“You need that openness to considering people who meet a lot of your criteria but maybe don’t check every single box,” she says.
Attracting people means lowering the barriers to applying and raising the effort put into outreach, says Keller. Be a community presence and put help-wanted signs in windows and on vehicles. “It’s the relationship,” he says. “You can’t just sit around waiting for people to knock on your door. You’ve got to go where the pool of workers is.”
“You hire people and assess their work ethic, experience and whether they are engaged. From there, you can target them to learn more skills and move up the ranks and make more money.”
— Kate Kjeell, president and founder, TalentWell
In-house referral programs are effective at connecting with the like-minded friends, family and acquaintances of trusted employees, says Keller. Some employers award bonuses to employees whose referrals stay for three months — one of Borg’s clients even gave existing employees money for every month their buddies stayed.
“You can place ads on all the job boards, but it’s really more about the relationships that people have,” Borg says.
And, he adds, get into the overlooked places, such as schools where students could use the gas money. Place ads in faith-community bulletins, and sponsor sports leagues and community events.
As the focus on sustainability attracts “younger, purpose-driven talent,” Todd says, owners have the chance to teach new hires the industry from the ground up. Competence, confidence and camaraderie grow as employees realize they are making a visible difference for the planet and for customers.
“You see that smile on their face, and they really enjoy it,” she says. “It takes everybody within the organization to provide that great customer service. People like to be part of something bigger than themselves, and that’s often why they stay.”
